The Darkness were at #1 all week and lost out on Saturday sales - one of the closest battles for Christmas #1 in recent times (the other being in 1998 when the Spice Girls beat Chef by 7,000 copies, 380,000 to 373,000 copies sold).

The Darkness were at #1 all week and lost out on Saturday sales - one of the closest battles for Christmas #1 in recent times (the other being in 1998 when the Spice Girls beat Chef by 7,000 copies, 380,000 to 373,000 copies sold).

Massive sales (at least by today's standards)! Top 2 both over 200k - the only instance of this in recent years. 73k for #5 - would've been enough for #1 most weeks that year. 27k for #10 - enough for #1 some weeks this year. 10k for #25 - just 5 weeks later this would be enough for top 10! Bear in mind that these were purely physical sales as well.

I really liked Mad World at the time because of Donnie Darko- but, in retrorespect, the Gary Jules version of Mad World wasn't very good really. But it did stop the Darkness getting to number one, which is very good indeed.

I think the best track on that chart by far is Too Lost In You by Sugababes.